'urned off buses
Page 40
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RATHER suspect that Noel Aillier who wrote your ''Why he XRM?" CM, December 8) s not a bus passenger.
He looks forward to the onenan operation of London's )uses. I don't. They have been ound to be too slow. Even Mr 3reengross who operates LT 'rom County Hall says so.
And I don't foresee one bus n five covering the complete oute as advertised. I sometimes :ry to use such a route and it is 'rustrating to stand in the cold md wet watching bus after bus :urn back until No 6 arrives.
Also most LT buses don't ieem to cover the full journey myway. I go from Brixton to the sank and am now plagued in :he morning rush hour by buses .urning back at Brixton tube ;tation and London Bridge BR tation.
Changing buses or changing 'nom bus to Underground costs -ne extra money.
Two-way radio was put on LT Duses in an effort to prevent Macks on bus crews. I have 'ever been on an LT bus turned ihort by a radio telephone nessage to cover a gap in the ;ervice in the opposite direction. think this is done in Dublin.
Having waited ages for a bus md then to be turned off it could 3e the last straw.
Nor have I ever been on a bus tiverted from its proper route to 3void a traffic accident.
I favour a campaign to keep )us lanes and roads clear of )arked vehicles, but once -laving bought a car, taxed it, 2nd insured it why not use it? Vame and address supplied London SW2
Greater still
WE NOTICE on page 15 of Commercial Motor (December 22) a claim that the new EFFER lorryloader with a 11.8 ton capacity at 2.53 metres and a 2.06 ton capacity at 11.3 metres exceeds "'any other lorry loader currently available on the UK market''.
We would point out that the Greenham PM 34003, avail-. able from Greenham Construction Equipment Ltd, The Furlong, Berryhill Industrial Estate, Droitwich, Worcestershire, offers 13.5 tonnes at 2.5 metres ,and 2.6 tonnes at 11.85 metres considerably in excess of the figures quoted by George Cohen Machinery,
E. R. ASHMAN Director Droitwich Worcestershire
Tacky situation
AS THE tachograph regulations receive the Royal Assent and the bland assurances about the surfeit of calibration centres that are to come are made, it is perhaps the right time to consider some salient points.
First, there are three makes of tachograph on the market and virtually all vehicles delivered over the past few years have been fitted with one or other, whether the customer wanted it or not.
Little heed has been paid to the make fitted, and chassis manufacturers fit different makes of tacho to vehicles supplied to a dealer who may already be committed to another type as an approved centre. Bedford and Ford are the worst offenders in this respect. My firm has had five vehicles from a dealer supposedly a Smiths agent: the score so far is two Veeder Root, two Lucas and one Smiths! Unless a company has been very astute or lucky over recent years I doubt if there are many standardised on one make of tacho.
All this will lead operators to problems when service and calibration is required, necessitating visits to various ,centres that may or not be close at hand. If one was to draw three separate UK maps showing the distribution of calibration centres by make, a disturbing situation is revealed.
I would not, for instance, like to be a Margate owner of a Veeder-equipped vehicle, nor one in mid-Wales equipped with a Lucas. All in all it looks like being one almighty Fowl(er) up [sic] imposing vast expenditure on the industry that with forethought and planning could 'well have been halved.
( If you wish to confirm my point about the bloodymindedness of chassis manufacturers in not fitting the make of tachograph ordered, I would suggest that you speak to Roger Phillips, director of Arlington Motor Company. I am sure he will confirm that despite his group's having been a long-time Lucas agency and specifying this make on all chassis ordered, Bedford persisted in supping 50 per cent with Smiths equipment.
D. J. BURIER Newport, Gwent